Like the Blade You Stain
Category: The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod
Point of View: Third Person
Genre: Horror/Action
Written by: AllApologies451994

Disclaimer: I do not own anything I mention in this story, except my own jacked up imagination. The title comes from a lyric in a My Chemical Romance song, entitled "Helena".

Synopsis: Vladimir Tod has never done a wrong to anyone. He never said anything out of the way, never pulled a prank on anyone (even though he really badly wanted to), always did his schoolwork, never started fights with anyone... But when an unknown enemy (or group of enemies) moves to town, he knows something's up, and that somehow it's related to him, though he's unsure why. So, what does he do? Stay around and deal with them, or chicken out and run away...?

(NOTE: This is set before any of the actual books. Which means, Otis isn't here, Nelly's still alive, and he still believes that Tomas died along with Mellina that night when he was 8. I'd say Vlad's around 11 here. If I happen to write anything that contradicts that, please let me know about it in a review or something/)

~-_x_-~

Vladimir Tod sighed as he threw on clothes and walked out the door. He was supposed to be going out to Henry's house to hang out for a while, but instead he found himself walking on a different path. He didn't realize it until he was almost already there, but his feet were carrying him to a place completely different, somewhere he didn't particularly want to see again. He stopped in front of his old house, and even though he was willing his feet not to move forward, they seemed to take him forward anyways.

He walked inside, and even though it was the exact same house he lived in for most of his childhood, it was completely different. There was no dust. No strange scent. No more atmosphere of pain and death and loss hanging around in the air. It was as if someone had came in and just cleaned the house for some reason. He felt completely at ease. And for a second, he had forgotten that he had no parents. He walked into the living room, half-expecting his mother to rush and kiss him on the forehead, and tell him how much she had missed him. He was waiting on his father to smile at him and tell him his favorite show was on TV, and for him to watch it with him. He smiled at the thought, and then remembered.

Vladimir Tod had no parents.

At least, he thought he had no parents. He wasn't sure why exactly, but his memory was fading. He couldn't recall hardly anything that happened the day of the fire. There was a side of him that was telling him to just leave, and never come back to this house. But he wasn't listening. He had a glimmer of hope there, and he was gonna go along with it, and at least be happy for the time being.

Roaming around the house, trying to find some evidence that he wasn't completely alone, he heard a noise coming from upstairs. That one part of his brain was telling him not to go upstairs, to just turn and run away. But being the naive 11-year-old he was, the curiosity got the best of him, and he went upstairs to investigate. He turned the doorknob to head into his parents' room, and what he saw shocked him.

There was a deformed man, lying on his parent's bed. His head looked as if someone had taken a sledgehammer to it. One ear was up higher than the other, his nose was crooked, and he was missing an eye. His mouth was half-closed, half-open, and he had a look in his one eye that was just filled with horror. One of his arms was short and stubbly, and the other was perfectly normal, aside from the fact that there were gashes all in it. His legs were completely covered, so it was impossible to tell anything about them. He was wearing old ragged clothing that appeared to have blood stains and cuts all in it. Vladimir gasped, and the man turned his crooked head to face him.

"Leave, boy. Leave now and never come back, if you don't want to be like me."

~-_x_-~

Vladimir shot up out of the bed so fast that he saw green and was forced to lie back down. He was soaking wet with sweat, and gasping for air. He had had the nightmare several times before, but it always changed. This time, it was an old deformed man on his parents' bed. Last time, it was a little girl who looked like she had been badly abused, and was carrying around this ripped up teddy bear with her. Another time it was a little boy with buttons for eyes and a hole in his stomach that had seemed to have cotton flowing out of it. But they always said the same thing: "Leave now and never come back."

Apparently, he was screaming in his sleep, and Nelly had came in to see what was wrong. He began crying when she walked in, and she held him in her arms to calm him down.

"What's wrong, Vlad? Did you have that nightmare again," Nelly asked in a gentle voice. Vlad nodded and she sighed and held him closer. Nelly was kind of used to this kind of thing by now; hearing Vladimir scream, going to check on him, and find him bawling on his bed because of the same old nightmare. She was seriously worried about what it may mean, but she didn't know who to turn to. So what she did was, she tried to distract him.

"Vladimir, are you thirsty? Do I need to heat you up a blood bag? Maybe it can help you sleep better." Vladimir sat up at the mention of a blood bag, and Nelly smiled. Having a half-vampire as a ward was pretty weird, but after a while, you get used to it. She walked into the kitchen and Vladimir followed. She heated up the blood and handed Vlad some cookies, and watched him as he ate.

As she watched him eat, she couldn't help but wonder. Who was this child she was caring for? What was happening to him? Why the recurring nightmare?

And while she was wondering, she realized that this was no ordinary child. He was half-vampire. And even though he was only a kid, he would be facing things that she would never know how handle. She felt sorry for him, for his future, but didn't say a word. All she did was take him back to bed, tuck him in, and lie with him until he fell back asleep.

A/N: Ha ha! I bet you guys thought I was dead! But then again, maybe you didn't know I existed to start with. But I guess that doesn't matter. My days of writing Twilight fanfiction are over, unless it's making fun of it and adding in random people from my favorite bands :P This is my first actual story (that isn't a one-shot) that isn't a humor fic. I hope you enjoyed my first chapter. The number of reviews I get determines when I update, so if you liked, you need to review ^-^